New outbreaks are likely as virus-writers try to emulate the "success" of the Melissa virus. Several variations of Melissa have appeared over the last 10 days but none seems to be as successful as Melissa in spreading itself or clogging email systems.
Meanwhile, the man accused of creating Melissa will plead innocent, according to his lawyer. Programmer David Smith (30) was arrested on Thursday in New Jersey and charged with a range of offences, including interruption of public communications and theft of computer service. His lawyer said people did "experimental things" every day in computing and that "nothing he did, or intended to do, had a premeditated or wrongful intent". Smith has been released on bail of $100,000.
Virus researchers are warning of possible disruption on April 26th, when the delayed-action CIH virus is due to delete files and modify the basic input output system (BIOS) on computers. (See report below for tips on avoiding Melissa.)
THE RATE RACE: The big winners in the IT wage race in Ireland are those with SAP/business process re-engineering skills. A team leader with over five years' experience commands rates of around £550 per day, a 10 per cent rise in six months. IT market consultants Paul Mac Donnell & Associates have published the Computer People survey which also shows that analyst programmers with mainframe languages are at daily rates of £311.
RADIO YAHOO: Yahoo has acquired Internet audio/video provider Broadcast.com in a deal worth an estimated $5.7 million. The deal will give Yahoo an edge in the multimedia sector and expose Broadcast.com's audio and video content to the portal's estimated 50 million monthly users.
Y2K PHONE HOME: The Y2K bug won't cause major telephone glitches, but people still should limit their use of phones and modems on January 1st, a US government report has warned. In a comprehensive analysis of how the bug could affect communications, the Federal Communications Commission assured the public that large companies were making progress to fix their systems.
LINUX LOOKING GOOD: Growth in commercial shipments of Linux will outpace other client or server operating environments over the next five years, according to International Data Corp (IDC). It forecasts that shipments will grow at a compound annual rate of 25 per cent, compared to 10 per cent for all other client environments and 12 per cent for other server environments.
VERDICT ON HOLD: The judge in the Microsoft antitrust case has outlined a new courtroom schedule which will see the trial resume in mid-May, delaying any verdict until late summer. The delay gives Microsoft and the US government more time to try to negotiate a settlement, although one round of talks ended unsuccessfully last week after only two hours.
MS SUPPORT: The next version of Microsoft's database software will support Extensible Markup Language (XML), according to company executives. Four months after releasing SQL Server 7.0, Microsoft is designing its next-generation database, code-named Shiloh, with several new features, including XML. It has already integrated XML into Microsoft Office 2000, which can save Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other files in XML as well as in native file formats.
SCHOOL CONNECTION: 4,100 schools now have at least one PC courtesy of Telecom Eireann's Information Age Schools project, and over 80 per cent of them have Net access. In addition to providing PCs, the programme has given schools free Internet connection and Internet usage for one hour of every school day for two years
IN BRIEF... Dell is to sell and factory-install Novell's Internet Caching System software with its PowerEdge line of network servers. . . Entropy has announced a new business partner agreement with Tivoli Systems. . . Sun Microsystems continued to hold the number-one spot in the worldwide Unix server segment in 1998. . . Oracle has announced the strategic alignment of its Oracle Partner Programme with Compaq's Enterprise Solu- tion Provider programme. . .